Making a connection

If you build it, they will come. For two hours each month, children and their families can spend time building and taking apart their creations as part of the Lego Club at Selby Public Library.

An average class has about 40 to 50 people in attendance, which includes children, parents and grandparents. Joann Schulz, customer service representative with the library, says the number increases during the summer.

Once a month, Schulz rolls out carts full of what she estimates to be more than 30,000 colorful Lego bricks. The bricks come from myriad places; some are purchased and others are donated.

“A lot of teenagers have donated, and we have some really cool pieces that some of the [children] have never seen before because they don’t make them anymore,” Schulz says.

To start, Schulz invites children to grab a base plate that looks similar to a large flat Lego that allows them to build on top. Then she goes to each table with a bucket of what the children call “heads” but are actually Lego mini figures, to make sure each child has plenty of choices to make their imaginative creations come to life.

The Lego Club meets the first Saturday of every month at the library.

Did you know?
The word Lego is derived from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” meaning “play well.” Lego also means “I put together” in Latin and “I connect” in Italian.